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DESCRIPTION OF ENCLOSURE.
Name and Date.
Bir E. Satow, No. 302, Peking, September 11, 1905
Subject.
Arguments against the Chinese attempt to annul the preliminary agreement for the Canton- Kowloon Railway.
(Confidential.)
FOREIGN OFFICE to COLONIAL OFFICE..
(Received November 7, 1905,)
SIR,
Foreign Office, November 6, 1905. On the 3rd instant a letter was addressed to you from this Department, in- closing a copy of Sir E. Satow's telegram, No. 198, of the 31st of October, relative to the negotiations with regard to the Hankow-Canton Railway Concession.
You were therein informed that inquiry was being made as to the purport of the Viceroy of Wuchang's despatch of September 9th, to which Sir E. Satow referred in his telegram.
I am directed by the Marquess of Lansdowne to transmit to you herewith, for the information of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, a copy of a telegram from Sir E. Satow in reply to the enquiry which was addressed to him on the subject, in which he gives a summary of the terms of the despatch in question.
I am, &c.,
Enclosure in No. 163.
F. A. CAMPBELL.
Sir E. SATOW, Peking, to the MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNE,
(Sent 1.5 p.m.; received 12.45 p.m., November 3, 1905.)
(Decypher Telegram No. 202.)
TELEGRAM.
Canton-Hankow Railway. Your telegram, No. 167 [of November 2].
Copy of despatch referred to should reach you about November 13.
It provides that if funds are borrowed abroad for construction prior application
is to be made to England.
In case such loan is arranged, British firms to have preference in the supply of machinery and material.
Similar undertakings as to lines that may be constructed in Hupeh and Hunan. Half of engineers to be of nationality providing the capital, half Japanese.
The above assurance is stated to bind Viceroys and Governors of Hupeh, Hunan, and Kwangtung, and then their successors in office who may have powers to deal with railways.
40473
No. 164.
FOREIGN OFFICE to COLONIAL OFFICE.
(Received November 14, 1905.)
The Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs presents his compliments to the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, and by direction of the Secretary of State transmits herewith copy of the undermentioned paper relative to the Canton- Kowloon Railway.
Foreign Office,
November 13, 1905.
* No. 156.
Enclosure in No. 164.
Sir E. SATOW to the MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNE.
(No. 302. Confidential.)
MY LORD,
British Legation, Peking, September 11, 1905.
IN continuation of my despatch, No. 296, of August 30th, I have the honour to enclose, for your Lordship's information, copies of further correspondence with the Wai Wu l'u in regard to the Canton-Kowloon Railway.
On the pretext that the proposals contained in my memorandum of April 26th were not in accordance with the terms of the Preliminary Agreement of March 28th, 1899, the Wai Wu Pu, in their note of September 3rd, appeared to conclude that the Preliminary Agreement was ipso facto annulled. On September 4th I conveyed verbally to Nat'ung some strong comments on this ingenuous proceeding, and requested a categorical answer, yes or no, whether the Chinese Government did really consider the Preliminary Agreement to be waste paper on the grounds stated. I was informed that the note represented the views of the Viceroy of Canton and local feeling in the matter, and that the Wai Wu Pu could not take on itself the responsibility of refusing to put forward those views. I was invited to state my objections on paper, to furnish the basis for a communication to the Viceroy. This I did in my note of September 11th. As your Lordship will notice, I have asked the Wai Wu Pu to instruct the Vice- roy of Canton to negotiate with the representative of the British and Chinese Cor- poration. In view of His Excellency's attitude I should have preferred another nego- tiator, but the Wai Wu Pu have indicated him, and as any arrangement must be approved by him before it can be concluded, I have, after mature consideration, decided that the best possible course under the circumstances is to endeavour to deal with him directly. I should add that this is also the advice of the Viceroy of Wuchang, conveyed privately to me through His Majesty's Consul-General at Hankow.
I have sent copies of this despatch and enclosures to the Governor of Hong Kong.
It may be convenient if I explain that the English text of the Canton-Kowloon Railway Agreement does not accord exactly with the Chinese version of Clause 1. The former speaks of "railways from Canton to British Kowloon," while the latter uses the expression "British leased territory of Kowloon." On my mentioning this fact to Mr. C. H. Ross, and observing that it was surely strange that the Corporation, on the 28th March, 1899, should have signed an agreement undertaking to build a line for the Chinese Government partly through territory leased to Great Britain by a Convention, dated nine months earlier, he explained to me that at the time of signa- ture, and still less when the Agreement was drafted, his principals were ignorant of the Convention in question. The wording of the Chinese version, however, shows that the Chinese negotiator was acquainted with it, and substituted the words above quoted. Your Lordship will perceive that the first portion of the argument in Prince Ch'ing's note is based on the English text, altogether ignoring the Chinese version and the circumstances of the time, and I trust that the argument by which I have endeavoured to rebut His Highness's theory will be approved. There still remains in reserve another argument which can be produced if necessary, namely, that the Preliminary Agreement of March, 1899, is the first step towards fulfilling the under- taking contained in the Convention of 9th.June, 1898, that "when hereafter China constructs a railway to the boundary of the Kowloon territory under British control, arrangements shall be discussed.”
In connexion with the negotiations for the Canton-Kowloon Railway Final Agree- ment it may be useful to refer to the stipulations contained in the correspondence
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